System and method for configuration of network-capable appliances

ABSTRACT

A controlling device is used to configure a target device for wireless network communications through use of a setup wizard. The setup wizard is used to obtain information required to perform communications on a wireless network via a wireless network router and a digital representation of the information obtained through use of the setup wizard is provided to the target device via use of the controlling device. The target device will use the digital representation of the information to configure itself for wireless network communications.

RELATED APPLICATION INFORMATION

This application claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 13/774,047, filed on Feb. 22, 2013, whichapplication claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 13/440,607, filed on Apr. 5, 2012, whichapplication claims the benefit of and is a continuation of U.S.application Ser. No. 11/823,737, filed on Jun. 28, 2007, whichapplications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Expanded use of wireless networking in the home, coupled with the broadavailability of a variety of consumer media content in digital form hasresulted in an increasing number of consumer appliances being offeredwith standard or optional wireless networking capability. Suchappliances may include, for example, AN receivers, digital pictureframes, Internet radios, network music players, etc. An example of sucha network is illustrated in FIG. 1.

Initial configuration of these appliances for operation on a user'snetwork (most commonly a so-called Wi-Fi network based on the IEEE802.11 family of standards) can however be tedious and frustrating. Thelimited GUI and interface (remote control and/or panel buttons) of suchappliances is not well suited to this task, which usually requires theentry of alphanumeric data such as network ID, encryption keys andpasswords, etc. For example, in a secure Wi-Fi network this may includeat a minimum a network name (SSID) and a Wired Equivalent Protocol (WEP)or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) password. It should be noted that whilefor convenience Wi-Fi terminology may be used throughout the balance ofthis document, the techniques and methods described are not intended tobe limited to Wi-Fi networks only.

Several approaches have been taken or proposed at various times toovercome this initial configuration issue. When performed on theappliance itself, setup and configuration generally uses the controllingdevice or front panel buttons to either scroll through an alphabet(e.g., channel up and down) or alternatively to perform multi-strokecharacter entry using the numeric pad as is well known in the cellularphone environment. Other approaches involve bringing the appliance intothe proximity of an existing network device and either physicallyconnecting it via a cable or initiating some form of near fieldcommunication (e.g., RFID) to authenticate the new appliance beingintroduced. Another approach proposed by the Wi-Fi Alliance utilizes aunique “PIN” which is factory programmed into each appliance and alsoprinted on an external sticker placed on the appliance, its manual,and/or its packaging. A user enters this PIN value into some otheralready connected network device to authenticate the new appliance. Yetanother approach exemplified by Microsoft's “Wireless Connect Now”feature of Windows XP SP2 proposes the use of a “memory stick” or USBflash drive to transfer settings data from a network-connected personalcomputer to the new appliance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A common feature of most of the appliances to be configured is theprovision with the appliance of a controlling device, for example aninfrared or RF remote control. A configuration method is disclosed whichleverages the controlling device which is inherently part of a target AVappliance by utilizing the controlling device to transfer network andother configuration information from a personal computer (PC) to theappliance with which the controlling device is associated. To this end,the personal computer, which would include a full QWERTY keyboard, isconveniently utilized to initially enter network configurationinformation, typically under the guidance of a setup wizard. By way ofexample, the PC based setup wizard may be provided for facilitating theinstallation and configuration of a networked appliance of the typelisted above and, when invoked, this setup wizard may serve to guide auser through the gathering of all parameters necessary for configurationof the appliance. It is anticipated that in cases where the PC uponwhich the wizard is executing is also destined to be a host server fordigital media content to be delivered to the appliance, certainparameters (e.g., SSID) may be automatically obtained by the setupwizard without user intervention. Furthermore, the network configurationportion of the setup wizard may comprise part of a larger setup wizardwhich also accomplishes the installation and configuration of the mediaserver features of the PC. In such cases, additional non-networkappliance configuration information (e.g., name of directories in whichcontent is stored, playlist locations, user preferences, etc.) may alsobe gathered and stored by the setup wizard for later transfer to theappliance as described hereafter. Additionally, in certain embodimentsthe setup wizard may serve to configure various features of thecontrolling device supplied with the appliance.

A better understanding of the objects, advantages, features, propertiesand relationships of the systems and methods described hereinafter willbe obtained from the following detailed description and accompanyingdrawings which set forth illustrative embodiments and which areindicative of the various ways in which the subject systems and methodsmay be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the systems and methods for configurationof network-capable appliances hereinafter described, reference may behad to preferred embodiments shown in the attached drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary system in which a described applianceconfiguration method may be practiced;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of components of an exemplarycontrolling device for use in the system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 illustrates in flowchart form an exemplary series of steps toacquire and load networked appliance configuration data into acontrolling device;

FIG. 4 illustrates a method for the transfer of networked applianceconfiguration data into a controlling device;

FIG. 5 illustrates a further method for the transfer of networkedappliance configuration data into a controlling device; and

FIG. 6 illustrates in flowchart form an exemplary series of steps totransfer configuration data from a controlling device to a networkedappliance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Turning now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated an exemplary system in whicha controlling device may be used to provide appliance configuration. Alocal area device network (LAN) comprising a PC 110, digital pictureframe 106, digital music renderer 104 and a to-be-introduced into thenetwork AV receiver 102 is supported by a combinationrouter/WAP/Ethernet switch 108. PC 110 is interfaced to router 108 via awired Ethernet port, while the other appliances 102,104,106 utilizewireless connections (e.g., Wi-Fi) to router 108. A wide area network(WAN) connection device 118 (e.g., a cable modem, DSL adapter, etc.) isattached to another of the wired Ethernet ports of router 108, providingaccess by the LAN and its devices to the Internet or similar network120. It will be appreciated that many other permutations of local areanetworking equipment and appliances are possible and as such the networkillustrated in FIG. 1 is by way of example only and not intended to belimiting as to the scope of the inventive method. Besides supportingclassical personal computing applications, PC 110 may also act as amedia server, i.e., its mass storage 112 may include a repository ofdigital content 114 (e.g. music, pictures, video, etc.) suitable forrendering by appliances 102, 104, 106. Additional content may also beavailable via the Internet 120 from remotely-located servers 122.

Each of the appliances 102, 104, 106 may be provided with a suitablecontrolling device 100. As is known in the art, the controlling devices100 may be capable of transmitting commands to the appliances using anyconvenient IR, RF, point-to-point, or networked protocol to cause theappliances to perform operational functions. Further, some or all of thecontrolling devices 100 may be of the “universal” type, i.e., acontrolling device that is capable of controlling other appliances inaddition to the one with which they were originally supplied. Thus,while illustrated in the context of an AV receiver 102, a digital musicrenderer 104, and a digital picture frame 106, it is to be understoodthat controllable appliances may also include, but are not limited to,televisions, VCRs, DVRs, DVD players, cable or satellite converterset-top boxes (“STBs”), amplifiers, CD players, game consoles, homelighting, drapery, fans, HVAC systems, thermostats, personal computers,etc., and various combinations thereof.

With reference to FIG. 2, for use in commanding the functionaloperations of one or more appliances, a controlling device 100 mayinclude, as needed for a particular application, a processor 200 coupledto a ROM memory 204, a RAM memory 202, a key matrix 212 (e.g., hardkeys, soft keys such as a touch sensitive surface overlaid on a liquidcrystal (LCD) or an electroluminescent (EL) display, or some combinationthereof), transmission circuit(s) 208 and/or transceiver circuit(s)(e.g., wireless IR and/or RF), a non-volatile read/write memory 206, ameans 214 to provide feedback to the user (e.g., one or more LEDs, LCDdisplay, speaker, and/or the like), a power source 210, an input/outputport 216 such as a serial interface, modem, Zigbee, WiFi, or Bluetoothtransceiver, USB port, etc., and clock and timer logic 220 withassociated crystal or resonator 218.

As will be understood by those skilled in the art, some or all of thememories 202, 204, 206 may include executable instructions(collectively, the program memory) that are intended to be executed bythe processor 200 to control the operation of the controlling device100, as well as data that serves to define the aforementioned controlprotocols and command values to the operational software (collectively,the command data). In this manner, the processor 200 may be programmedto control the various electronic components within the controllingdevice 100, e.g., to monitor the power supply 210, to cause thetransmission of signals, control visual feedback device(s) 214, etc. Allor part of the non-volatile read/write memory 206, for example anEEPROM, battery-backed up RAM, FLASH, Smart Card, memory stick, or thelike, may additionally be used to store controlling device setup dataand parameters as necessary. Further, a portion of RAM memory 202 and/ornon-volatile memory 206 may be used for the storage of network setup andother data to be transferred to appliances such as 102, 104 and/or 106as will be described in more detail hereinafter. While the memory 204 isillustrated and described as a ROM memory, memory 204 may also becomprised of any type of readable media, such as ROM, FLASH, EEPROM, orthe like. Preferably, the memories 204 and 206 are non-volatile orbattery-backed such that data is not required to be reloaded afterbattery changes. In addition, the memories 202, 204 and 206 may take theform of a chip, a hard disk, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, and/orthe like. Still further, it will be appreciated that some or all of theillustrated memory devices may be physically incorporated within thesame IC chip as the microprocessor 200 (a so called “microcontroller”)and, as such, they are shown separately in FIG. 2 only for the sake ofclarity.

To cause the controlling device 100 to perform an action, controllingdevice 100 is adapted to be responsive to events, such as a sensed userinteraction with the key matrix 212, etc. In response to an event,appropriate instructions within the program memory (hereafter the“operating program”) may be executed. For example, when a function keyis actuated on the controlling device 100, the controlling device 100may retrieve from the command data the command value and controlprotocol corresponding to the actuated function key and the currentdevice mode of the controlling device 100, stored within memory 202,204, and/or 206, and transmit a command to a target appliance with whichcontrolling device 100 was supplied, e.g. the AV receiver 102, in aformat recognizable by that target appliance. In an exemplaryembodiment, the operating program may also be operable to transmit apreviously stored block(s) of configuration data to the target applianceas will be described in more detail hereafter. It will be furtherappreciated that the operating program can be used not only to cause thetransmission of command codes and/or data to the appliances, but also toperform local operations. While not limiting, local operations that maybe performed by the controlling device 100 may include displayinginformation/data, favorite channel setup, macro key setup, function keyrelocation, etc. Examples of local operations can be found in U.S. Pat.Nos. 5,481,256, 5,959,751, and 6,014,092.

As noted previously, controlling device 100 may be what is commonlyreferred to as a “universal” type controlling device, i.e., acontrolling device that is provided with a library of command datarepresentative of multiple different device control protocols, therebyenabling a user of said controlling device to operate additionalappliances other than the one with which the controlling device wasoriginally supplied. For example a universal controlling device suppliedwith an AV receiver may for user convenience also be capable ofoperating the user's TV set and/or DVD players regardless of the make ormodel of those appliances. In such embodiments, the library of commanddata may be pre-programmed into the memory 202, 204, and/or 206 ofcontrolling device 100; may be stored externally, either locally 116 ona personal computer 110 or remotely on a web server 122 and downloadedinto controlling device 100 as required; or some combination thereof.Methods for setting up a controlling device to command the operation ofspecific home appliances by selection of a particular command set from alibrary of command codes, and if necessary downloading such code setinto the controlling device for example via external input port 216, arewell-known and will not be described in greater detail herein.Nevertheless, for additional information pertaining to setup procedures,the reader may turn to, by way of example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,587,067,5,614,906, 6,225,938, 7,046,161 and 7,218,243. It will also beappreciated that the controlling device 100 may be set up to command anappliance by being taught the command codes needed to command suchappliance as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,623,887.

In the example illustrated in FIG. 1, an AV receiver 102, which isequipped with a wireless networking interface 130 and which has thecapability of accessing and playing back digital audio content from anetworked server such as, for example, content 114 when PC 110 isconfigured as a media server, is to be configured for use within thenetwork. In order to facilitate configuration of AV receiver 102 duringinitial installation, a PC application may be provided in conjunctionwith AV receiver 102 (e.g., on a CD ROM, memory stick, etc. packagedwith it, or alternatively downloadable from a Web site). This PCapplication comprises a setup wizard which, once installed on a user'sPC 110, will guide that user through a series of steps to acquire theinformation necessary to configure AV receiver 102 for networkedoperation. Additionally, in certain embodiments the setup wizard mayalso guide the user through the setup of a universal remote control 100that is supplied with AV receiver 102 and/or the installation andconfiguration of media sever software on PC 110 as needed to supportcontent playback on AV receiver 102.

By way of more detailed explanation and with reference to FIG. 3, uponbeing invoked 300, the setup wizard may query whether the media serverapplication is to be installed 302. If so, at step 304 the appropriatesoftware files will be copied and/or extracted from the installation CDROM or downloaded from a server computer (e.g., downloaded as a filecompressed in “Zip” format) and placed in the program file area of PC110. As is known in the art, such installation may include entry ofinformation into system registries, start up folders, etc., as requiredby the particular operating system of PC 110. Upon completion ofinstallation, the setup wizard may then query 306 whether the mediaserver application is to be configured. If so, at step 308 configurationdata such as directories in which content is stored, access permissions,playlist information, etc. may be gathered from the user. This may alsocomprise locating, sorting, indexing, etc. content stored locally on PC110 and/or remotely on other networked devices. Such media server setupactivities are well known in the art, however, for further informationregarding such setup activities reference may be made to, for example,co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/131,088 of like assigneeand incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Upon completion ofthis step, certain data items may be stored on PC 110 (or retrievablevia PC 110) for later transfer to AV receiver 102 as will be describedhereafter.

Following media server configuration, the setup wizard may query 310whether the universal remote control 100 supplied with AV receiver 102is to be set up. If so, at step 312 information pertinent to the setupof universal remote control 100 may be gathered from the user. Suchinformation may include, for example, brand and model number(s) of otheritems of equipment to be controlled through use of the universal remotecontrol 100, which of these devices are attached to which inputs on AVreceiver 102, etc. Such information may be distilled into appropriate IRor RF command sets, macro sequences, etc., either locally by the setupwizard itself or interactively in conjunction a Web service 122, or acombination thereof, as further described in, for example, the beforereferenced U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,146,161 and 7,218,243, or in pending U.S.patent application Ser. Nos. 09/615,473 or 09/804,623 all of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Upon completion, allrequired remote control setup information and/or command code sets maystored on PC 110 in a format suitable for later transfer to remotecontrol 100 as will be described hereafter.

Following remote control configuration, the setup wizard may query 314whether the network settings for AV receiver 102 are to be configured.If so, at step 316 the setup wizard will acquire the necessaryparameters from the user and/or the internal network settings of PC 110.Such data may include SSID, WPA or WEP password(s), etc. Once acquired,this information may be saved for later transfer to AV receiver 102 viaremote control 100 as will be described hereafter.

Upon the user's completion of all desired configuration steps, the setupwizard may query 318 whether the user is ready to transfer the saveddata to remote control 100. If a negative response is received, thesetup wizard is complete and the parameters and values saved during theprocess are retained for future editing and/or transfer to remotecontrol 100 and AV receiver 102. If a positive response is received, atstep 320 the saved parameters and configuration settings are formattedfor download into remote control 100. The data to be downloaded may bedivided into multiple segments or blocks for convenience of processingby the operating program of remote control 100. For example remotecontrol setup values gathered at step 312 may be formatted into aseparate data block from AV receiver configuration parameters gatheredat steps 316 and/or 308. In this manner each individual download blockmay be separately provided with a checksum, be encrypted, etc., asdesired. Once all the data to be transferred to remote control 100 isformatted for download, at step 322 the user may be prompted to readyremote control 100 for transfer of data from PC 100. To this end, remotecontrol 100 may be attached to PC 110 via a wired connection, forexample a USB cable 402 as illustrated in FIG. 4. It will beappreciated, however, that the physical transfer of data between the PC110 and a controlling device need not be limited to a wired connectionas illustrated, rather various alternative embodiments may use audible,optical (e.g., as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,922,058 or 6,256,378),magnetic (e.g., as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,463), infrared(e.g., IrDA), RF (e.g., Bluetooth) or any other suitable coupling methodto achieve the same end. Regardless of method used, once the remotecontrol 100 of the exemplary embodiment has been readied 324 forreception of data from PC 110, at step 326 the data gathered by thesetup wizard is transferred to remote control 110 and the setup wizardcompletes at step 328.

In an instance in which a controlling device does not include anycapability for communication with a PC, upon completion of configurationdata acquisition the setup wizard may display a key entry sequence tothe user whereby the user may actuate corresponding keys of thecontrolling device to manually enter 502 into the controlling device theconfiguration data as is illustrated in FIG. 5. It will be understoodthat the data to be transferred may be encoded so as to minimize thenumber of keystrokes required, e.g., by using all the keys available onthe keypad of the controlling device. For example, if the controllingdevice has at least 32 keys, duotrigesimal (base 32) encoding may beutilized.

It will be appreciated that the exact sequence and order of the abovedescribed setup activities is not material to the practice of theinventive method, rather these may be conducted in any convenient order,individual steps may be omitted, etc. as appropriate to a givencircumstance. Furthermore any or all of these steps may be performedwith the controlling device already in communication with the PC, inwhich case data may be formatted and transferred immediately as it isgathered during use of the setup wizard rather than saved for laterdownload.

Upon completion of data transfer to the controlling device, theoperating program of the controlling device may immediately act uponthat portion of the transferred data which is applicable toconfiguration of the controlling device itself, e.g., selection ofcommand set(s) corresponding to devices to be controlled, key assignmentacross devices, storage of macro sequences, etc., all as are well knownin the art previously referenced. In the illustrated example, theadditional portion of the downloaded data destined for AV receiver 102is stored within the memory 202 and/or 206 of remote control 100 forlater transfer to AV receiver 102 once remote control 100 has beentransported by a user to the vicinity of the appliance and a transfermode initiated, as will now be described in further detail.

Turning now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated an exemplary method by whichconfiguration data stored in a controlling device such as remote control100 may be transferred to a target appliance such as AV receiver 102,utilizing the conventional unidirectional IR or RF link hardwareprovided for transmission and receipt of control functions. Initiallythe controlling device may be placed into a data transfer mode 600 bythe user, for example by the entry of a unique key sequence orcombination of keys (e.g., holding down “mute” and “play” together forseveral seconds; entering a special device code number; etc.). Whenplaced into this mode, at step 602 the controlling device may transmit aspecially defined “transfer request” command code to the targetappliance. Upon receiving the “transfer request” command at step 620,the appliance may prepare itself for the transfer of configuration datablock(s) from the controlling device. When the appliance is ready toreceive the data from the controlling device, at step 622 the appliancemay signal the user, for example via a message or icon on its frontpanel, via a display on an attached device such as a TV set, via asound, etc. The appliance may then wait to receive a data block from thecontrolling device, as shown at steps 624 and 626.

Upon observing that the appliance is ready to receive the networkconfiguration data, at step 606 the user may provide a start indicationto the controlling device, such as for example pressing a key on remotecontrol 100. If the controlling device does not receive such anindication within a reasonable period of time, it may time out and exitthe data transfer mode as shown at step 604. Once the start indicationis provided, at step 608 the controlling device may transmit the storedportion of the network configuration data which was previouslytransferred into the controlling device as described earlier. In analternative embodiment, transmission of the data may commenceautomatically a predetermined period of time after the transfer requestcommand has been issued, i.e., omitting steps 622, 604, and 606. Methodsfor encoding the network configuration data on the physical transmissionmedium (e.g., wireless IR or RF) are well known in the art and will notbe described in further detail herein, however, for additional insightreference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 6,781,518 of like assignee andincorporated hereby in its entirety. Preferably, the information to betransferred to the appliance is protected against data corruption duringtransmission by a checksum, hash function, or similar mechanism as iswell known in the art. For ease of transfer, large data blocks may bebroken down into multiple transmission segments and reassembled at thetargeted receiver. Furthermore, the data may be encrypted (especially incases where communication between the controlling device and theappliance is by means of an RF signal) in order to protect configurationdata values such as SSID or WEP password from interception oreavesdropping. Encryption may be performed by the setup wizard prior totransferring the data to the controlling device, or may be performedwithin the controlling device itself immediately prior to transmissionto the appliance. In either case any suitable encryption method may beused, however, since this type of communication between the controllingdevice and the appliance is likely to be of short duration andinfrequent occurrence, in some cases a single fixed encryption key,factory encoded into the appliance and either its correspondingcontrolling device or setup wizard software, may suffice. Alternativelyan encryption key value may be factory encoded both within the applianceand on a label attached to it, in which instance a user wishing totransfer configuration data may be required to enter the label valueinto the controlling device for retention in non-volatile memory 206 orinto the PC for storage and use by the setup wizard application. Othermethods, for example using a random numeric sequence entered by the useron the controlling device keypad and repeated on the front panel of theappliance may also be used.

Once the data block(s) have been received by the appliance at step 626(and reassembled, if necessary) at steps 628 and 630 the data isdecrypted and checked for integrity. It will be appreciated that incertain instances these steps may be performed in a different order,depending upon whether the checksum and/or hash values are inside oroutside the encrypted portion, or both. If the checksum calculationfails (step 630), or if a complete data block is not received with areasonable time (step 624), the appliance may signal the user at step636 that the data transmission attempt has failed. At step 638, if therehave not been too many previous attempts, the appliance may return tothe receive ready state starting at step 622 in order to reattempt thedata transfer. If the received data is validated, the appliance maysignal this fact to the user at step 632, and then at step 634 may applythe received data to configure itself for the network.

On completion of transmission to the appliance, the controlling devicemay wait at steps 610 through 614 for a user input based on theindication presented by the appliance at step 632 or 636, e.g., useractivation of an “up” or “down” key on remote control 100. If no inputor a negative input is received, at step 616 the controlling device willinitiate a re-transmission of the data block(s), provided there have notbeen to many previous attempts.

It will be appreciated that in instances in which the controlling deviceis capable of bi-directional communication with the target appliance,certain of the above described steps may performed automatically usingdirect communication between the target appliance and controlling deviceand without user involvement, for example, the user involved steps 622,606, 636, 610, and 612. Such bi-directional communication may use anyconvenient IR or RF format, again as are well known in the art, however,for additional insight reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 7,167,913of like assignee and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

While various concepts have been described in detail, it will beappreciated by those skilled in the art that various modifications andalternatives to those concepts could be developed in light of theoverall teachings of the disclosure. For example, while described in thecontext of a hand-held remote control being utilized as the controllingdevice, the controlling device may be any device that includes theability to control operational functions of another device.Additionally, while the above described system and methods have beendiscussed in the context of communicating SSID, WEP, WPA, and othernetwork setup and security data from a server to a client device, othertypes of data such as Digital Rights Management (“DRM”) or other contentsecurity keys, user protected content source password and/or keyinformation, and other data types and formats may be effectively andsecurely transferred using the system and methods described herein.Further, while described in the context of functional modules andillustrated using block diagram format, it is to be understood that,unless otherwise stated to the contrary, one or more of the describedfunctions and/or features may be integrated in a single physical deviceand/or a software module, or one or more functions and/or features maybe implemented in separate physical devices or software modules. It willalso be appreciated that a detailed discussion of the actualimplementation of each module is not necessary for an enablingunderstanding of the invention. Rather, the actual implementation ofsuch modules would be well within the routine skill of an engineer,given the disclosure herein of the attributes, functionality, andinter-relationship of the various functional modules in the system.Therefore, a person skilled in the art, applying ordinary skill, will beable to practice the invention set forth in the claims without undueexperimentation. It will be additionally appreciated that the particularconcepts disclosed are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting asto the scope of the invention which is to be given the full breadth ofthe appended claims and any equivalents thereof

All patents cited within this document are hereby incorporated byreference in their entirety.

What is claimed is:
 1. A smart device having a memory in which is storedinstruction which, when executed by a processing device of the smartdevice, assist in configuring a first device for wireless networkcommunications with a second device, the instructions performing stepscomprising: receiving by a first receiving system of the smart devicevia a first communications link a first communication from the seconddevice, the first communication comprising a data representative of afirst information required to exchange communications with the seconddevice via a second communications link and a data representative of asecond information required to at least issue communications to thefirst device via a third communications link; using the secondinformation to configure a transmission system of the smart device toissue communications to the first device via the third communicationslink; and causing the configured transmission system of the smart deviceto issue a second communication to the first device via the thirdcommunications link, the second communication comprising the datarepresentative of the first information required to exchangecommunications with the second device via the second communications linkwhereupon the first device will use the first information required toexchange communications with the second device to configure itself toexchange communications with the second device via the secondcommunications link.
 2. The smart device as recited in claim 1, whereinthe first communications link comprises a wired communications link, thesecond communications link comprises a first wireless communicationslink, and the third communications link comprises a second wirelesscommunications link.
 3. The smart device as recited in claim 2, whereinthe second communications link comprises a radio frequencycommunications link and the third communications link comprises aninfrared communications link.
 4. The smart device as recited in claim 1,wherein the first communications link comprises a first wirelesscommunications link, the second communications link comprises a secondwireless communications link, and the third communications linkcomprises a third wireless communications link.
 5. The smart device asrecited in claim 4, wherein the second communications link comprises aradio frequency communications link and the third communications linkcomprises an infrared communications link.
 6. The smart device asrecited in claim 1, wherein the second information comprises dataindicative of a communications protocol recognizable by the firstdevice.
 7. The smart device as recited in claim 1, wherein the firstinformation comprises data representative of at least a network name anda network password.
 8. The smart device as recited in claim 1, whereinthe configured transmission system of the smart device is caused toissue the second communication to the first device via the thirdcommunications link in response to an activation of an input element ofthe smart device.
 9. The smart device as recited in claim 1, wherein theinstructions receive by a second receiving system of the smart devicevia the third communications link a third communication from the firstdevice and wherein the configured transmission system of the smartdevice is caused to issue the second communication to the first devicevia the third communications link in response to the second receivingsystem of the smart device receiving the third communication.
 10. Thesmart device as recited in claim 1, wherein the first information in thesecond communication is encrypted.
 11. The smart device as recited inclaim 10, wherein the first information in the first communication isencrypted.
 12. The smart device as recited in claim 1, wherein using thesecond information to configure a transmission system of the smartdevice to issue communications to the first device via the thirdcommunications link comprises configuring a remote control applicationresident on the smart device.
 13. The smart device as recited in claim12, wherein configuring the remote control application resident on thesmart device includes selecting a command code set from a library ofcommand code sets determined to be appropriate for the first device.